Questions

Information Questions

quand

when

pourquoi

why

combien

how much/many

comment

how

où

where

que, quoi

what

qui

who

The simplest way to form a question is to take a declarative sentence and
replace a noun with one of the interrogative pronouns listed above. This form
is informal, unless the replaced noun was the sentence's subject.

When the interrogative pronoun replaces the noun and its position does not change,
use quoi as opposed to que.

Ils servent à quoi ?What is it used for?

Tu aimes manger quoi ?
You like eating what?

After the exchange, the interrogative pronoun is often moved to the front
of the sentence. When doing this, inverting the subject and verb is the norm
in formal contexts such as writing. Not inverting the subject and verb is
very informal.

Combien as-tu payé ?
How much did you pay?

Quand visitez-vous Nantes ?When are you visiting Nantes?

Où Francine cache-t-elle l'argent ? Francine hides the money where?

Comment vont-ils le resoudre ?How are they going to resolve that?

Use que as opposed to quoi when the pronoun has been moved to
the front of the sentence unless a preposition comes before it. Neither que
or quoi can act as the subject of the sentence. Instead use qu'est-ce
qui which we will cover shortly.

Qu'aimes-tu manger ? What do you like eating?

À quoi
sert-il ?What is it used for?

De quoi vous avez peur ?What are you scared of?

Est-ce que

When the interrogative pronoun appears at the beginning of a sentence,
it often is immediately followed by est-ce que. This is common in both
formal and informal speaking styles.

Qui est-ce qui, Qu'est-ce qui , Qui est-ce que

Que and qui are unique in that they can act as the subject
of a question. When they act as an object within the sentence, continue to
attach est-ce que, but when they act as a subject attach est-ce
qui.